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Goldman Sachs Charged with Fraud; Volcano in Iceland Shuts Down European Airports; Georgia Schools Accused of Cheating on Standardized Tests

Aired April 16, 2010 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Just leave us a comment at CNN.com/Tony. I'm hustling here, because I cannot wait to hear the take of our chief business correspondent on the Goldman Sachs news today. You don't want to miss this. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Tony, I'm going to pick it up where you left it off. A big, big story we're going to be following. I am Ali Velshi, and I'm here for the next two hours today and every weekday to try and break down every important topic that we cover. I'm going to give you a level of detail that's going to help you make important decisions about your schools, your health, your travel, and your world.

Let's get started. I've got a new rundown here. And this is what Tony was talking about. It was the company that found itself at the center of the financial meltdown. Now the U.S. government is accusing Goldman Sachs of fraud. We're going to give you the details, and we're going to break it down for you.

Plus, your weekend flight plans, even the president's flight plans might get scrapped because of a volcano, a volcano all the way in Iceland that is spewing a massive cloud of ash that is washing around the world. What's in the air that's keeping flights on the ground, more and more of them in country after country? It was bad yesterday. It's a lot worse today. And by tomorrow, who knows? We'll tell you about it.

And you've been with somebody for years. You've loved them. You're cared for them. They've loved and cared for you. And then they get sick, and you can't go to the hospital and be by their bedside. It happens across the country, but today there is a move under way to make sure it never happens again. A great story we'll tell you about very shortly.

But first, let's talk about Goldman Sachs. What a big development right now. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Goldman Sachs with fraud. I've got a team of people here who have followed this very closely. Allan Chernoff is with us. Christine Romans is with us.

Let me first try and give you a very basic explanation of what is happening with Goldman Sachs. Bottom line: here's Goldman Sachs. Let's talk about your mortgage. People had mortgages. They get them from the bank. The bank sells those mortgages to someone else, a larger organization. Goldman Sachs takes all those mortgages, and they put them together in what's called mortgage-backed securities.

Now, what happens is they brought in a third party to determine how to package those mortgage-backed securities into an -- into an investment portfolio. Some of them were safe. Some of them were less safe. These were all subprime mortgages. This is how the financial system was making money out of subprime mortgages. And then they packaged that all up, and they divided it into $100 million investments, and they sell it to other investors, generally rich investors. And that investment can go up or it can go down. That's basically how the system was working.

Here's where the problem comes in. Let me show you what the government, what the SEC is alleging that Goldman did. Same thing. They take these mortgages. They package it out. The client determines what kind of mix it's going to be. But somehow this client, who's also the adviser, determined to put very bad-risk mortgages into this bunch and sell them to investors, almost assuring that those investments would go down. Because this client that was advising Goldman Sachs was at the same time, it was a hedge fund. It was betting against those mortgages.

Let's bring Allan Chernoff and Christine Romans in. They've been following this very closely. Allan has been reading the allegations and getting some detail on it. Allan, let's talk a little bit about this. I gave a very rudimentary description. Fill it in a bit.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, what we had here with Goldman Sachs was dealing essentially with two groups of clients, right? Big investors on the one hand who are betting that the housing market was going to be OK. This was back in 2007. That the housing market would keep on growing, people would be able to pay their mortgages.

On the other hand, they were dealing with a giant hedge fund, Paulson and Company, that was certain housing was going into the tank. Paulson and Company was going to bet on a decline in housing.

Here's what went down. OK? Goldman, as you said, put together these investments in those securities, those mortgage-backed securities, essentially a pool of mortgages, and they were not high quality. They were what's known as, quote, unquote, subprime. All right?

So this pool was put to together. You've got the investors essentially buying -- buying investments that track all of these mortgages. And these investors were told that that third party was picking the actual mortgages that would be in this pool.

Well, it turns out that other client, Paulson and Company, the hedge fund betting against the mortgages, against the housing market, that firm actually, according to the SEC, was actually picking many of the mortgages in that pool of investments. And that was never revealed to the first group of investors who were betting that the market was going to go up. VELSHI: OK, so...

CHERNOFF: SEC says conflict of interest; that's fraud.

VELSHI: Christine, if this is true...

CHERNOFF: That's what the SEC says.

VELSHI: ... the issue here is that a group of people was -- a company was advising Goldman Sachs or putting together this portfolio that Goldman was selling to investors, and that same group of -- that same company was betting against those mortgages, betting against that investment going up. I mean, it couldn't -- if these allegations prove true, that is a first-grade definition of conflict of interest.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And it sort of pulls back a curtain, I think, of maybe how some of the complicated ways that Wall Street works. I mean, I just got off the phone with Elliot Spitzer, former governor of New York. But he was attorney general of New York, who was known as the Sheriff of Wall Street for investigating companies like Goldman.

And he says this is -- this shows you that these conflict of interest are at the center of how some of these big banks make money. And he says this shows that sort of a new SEC -- he was very critical of the SEC in the past, that maybe they're taking a new direction here after the fact to try to, you know, pull the curtain back on those conflicts of interest.

But certainly, if you were buying something, Ali, anything, you were buying something from somebody who was selling it to you, you'd want to know if somebody else stood to profit by what you were buying. Wouldn't you? And that seems to be at the core of what this is all about.

I want to point out to you, Allan was talking about what the SEC is alleging.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: But we have not heard officially from Goldman Sachs or from Paulson and Company yet. My e-mails to Goldman has been unanswered so far.

And something else, as Elliott Spitzer mentioned, he said he's surprised that this wasn't settled ahead of time. Usually, there's a lot of talking back and forth between the SEC and the company, and it doesn't come to a position like this. So he said this is definitely a -- this is definitely a new situation we're seeing here with the SEC being so -- so up front here about Goldman.

VELSHI: I think you got a response, Allan?

CHERNOFF: Ali, I should point out, we actually do have a statement from Goldman Sachs. And Goldman says, quote, "The SEC's charges are completely unfounded in law and fact, and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation."

So Goldman saying, "Hey, we did nothing wrong over here."

VELSHI: Tell me -- tell me about this...

CHERNOFF: By the way, Christine also made an -- Christine made an important point that the SEC is investigating a new area and, indeed, this is the first case brought by a new division of the SEC enforcement...

VELSHI: Right. But -- but...

CHERNOFF: ... that has been looking into these new structured products, and they are investigating other banks, as well.

VELSHI: OK. But the SEC can only bring civil charges, right? Sometimes we've seen in history, and Allan, you and Christine and I have followed every one of these -- these corporate trials and charges over the years. Sometimes an SEC charge can be followed by criminal charges, but not always.

CHERNOFF: Right. Let's not look for criminal charges over here. This is all civil. The SEC only does civil cases. It would have to be the Justice Department, the U.S. attorney pursuing that. And that -- that is -- that's, as far as we understand, not happening here just yet. So we're all talking civil here.

VELSHI: All right. I know that you're both working your sources on this. I know, Christine, you've been getting some information. I want you to come back a little bit more, and we'll update everybody on this story.

It's having a ripple effect across the country. You can look in the bottom right-hand corner. Around the world, in fact, it's affected the stock market. But it is some major charges and the first time that we've been charges that are very specific to what we think of as causes of the financial crisis.

I'll talk to you both in a little while. Allan Chernoff and my co-host, Christine Romans.

Another big, big story that we're following today: airports across Europe are pretty much shut down today again. You can -- there are all sorts of airports shut down across Europe. I don't know what this picture is that we're looking for. But we'll be back in just a moment with more on this story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It doesn't matter who you are. You can't fight Mother Nature. From folks looking forward to a relaxing European vacation, like our writer Carolyn on the show, to business travelers like our correspondent Jim Clancy, to heads of state like our President Obama, on his way to the funeral for the leader of Poland, tens of thousands of people around the world are finding their travel plans in limbo, thanks to a smoldering volcano in Iceland. Check out the view from outer space over -- over northern Europe and Iceland. You can sort of just make out here, this is the ash cloud. The rest of it is just normal cloud, which is just vapor, as you know, just water. But this is not water. This is actually particles of lava that have solidified.

This is what's wreaking havoc. Believe it or not, it's causing major travel disruptions to airlines worldwide, far more than we saw on September 11. In fact, Richard Quest was saying he had heard that it was the worst since World War II.

The reason for the flight risk: if the ash spewing from this volcano and that cloud get sucked up into jet engines, it can shut them down. This is a picture of what that ash cloud looks like. But as it dissipates it looks more and more like normal cloud, which is why they just shut down airspace everywhere in Europe where this cloud is going through.

Our resident aviation expert, CNN International's Richard Quest, joins us now from New York.

Richard, this was -- this was a bad situation yesterday. It seems to have worsened today.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think that you just put your finger perfectly on the point. It's this cloud. The plume of cloud that you're seeing, the big cloud, if you like, dark, deep and nasty, that is obvious. You can say, well, you just fly around that, fly over it, fly under it, whatever. But it -- it dissipates and just looks like normal cloud. Or even you can't see it at all. But the particles are still in the air.

And the reality is that is what is extending over vast tracks of northern and now western Europe. And that -- and one person asked me today, Ali, "Well, do you know where the cloud is going?" And the short answer is, absolutely they know where the cloud is going. And that is why. But it's not just that little cloud. It gets further and further and blown across the continent. It's simply too risky and too dangerous to fly through it, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. As of now we've got airspace totally closed in at least seven countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary. Another eight countries air spaces mostly or partially closed: United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Romania, Norway, Sweden, and Poland. We're just trying to find out whether Poland shut the whole thing down.

Jim Boulden was just saying, thought, that he's just had reports that there are some flights going in and out of Scotland or will be going in and out of Scotland.

VELSHI: Yes. Yes, and that will be because they now believe they can get what's known as a track across the Atlantic that will be -- that will completely circumnavigate it.

A short while ago, Ali, I got an e-mail from Ryanair, which is the biggest low-cost carrier in Europe. And Ryanair is basically saying that their level of cancellations will continue through until Monday.

Now, it is tempting to say, -- well, let me go through of the things people have asked me.

VELSHI: Yes.

QUEST: First, why don't they fly under the clouds?

VELSHI: Right.

QUEST: You can't do. If you were to fly under the cloud, the plane would -- it would be like driving your Mercedes S-Class on the sandy beach. You would be at the most inopportune, most -- it just would not be possible. The fuel you would use would be so ridiculously high it's not even realistic.

Can you go over the cloud? Far too risky. Go around the cloud? Not likely. It's too big.

Well, it's just one of those things. And I recognize that anybody who is stranded by this is thinking, surely in this day and age, we can come up with something better than wait, wait, and wait. But Ali, this comes under the heading, you know, I mean, stuff happens.

VELSHI: Yes, yes. And I'm one of these guys like you are, Richard, that sometimes when flights are delayed or canceled because it is unsafe to travel in a certain condition, you're always with passengers who are complaining about it. I always choose the cancellation that's going to not have that plane fall out of the sky because something went wrong.

QUEST: And one other thing -- another question people are asking me about, whether you can go up, under or around.

VELSHI: Yes.

QUEST: Why haven't they planned for this? Why isn't there a plan in place?

Well, frankly, you show me a plan that can handle...

VELSHI: Yes.

QUEST: ... a once in a 20- or 30-year eventuality across entire tracks of northern, western and southern Europe, and I'll show you a system that is going to be so expensive that you and I would object to paying the airfares. Remember, we still want the cheap -- we still want the cheapest fare, the most frequency, and that, of course, comes at a price.

VELSHI: Richard, you're standing on my old stomping grounds. I think you're on the steps of Federal Hall. That's the New York Stock Exchange behind you. What are you doing over there? QUEST: We're down here for "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS," my program on CNN international. Appropriately, of course, the headquarters of Goldman Sachs, which you've been talking about and which I've been talking about, or will be, just down the road over there.

VELSHI: Yes.

QUEST: You know it very well indeed.

VELSHI: They're having a rough day.

Richard, good to see you, as always. Thanks very much. Richard Quest, host of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" on CNN international.

All right. Allegations of cheating on standardized tests in Georgia, not by students but by the school officials responsible for teaching them. Why those answer bubbles are getting a lot more attention this year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Students in Georgia have been suffering through standardized testing this week. And their answer sheets will get some extra scrutiny this year after allegations that some schools fudged the numbers in the past. Our Don Lemon looks into schools allegedly cheating for their students.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Mikole Harden is worried.

(on camera) Were you the only parent who's concerned about how it performs?

MIKOLE HARDEN, FATHER: No, by all means.

LEMON (voice-over): Someone may have changed the answers on the standardized tests at his daughter's school last year.

(on camera) Do you have concerns?

HARDEN: Of course I have concerns like any other parents. I have concerns. I hope that there's no cheating. And if it is cheating, there needs to be a punishment for it.

LEMON (voice-over): And he's not alone. The state of Georgia is investigating 10 percent of its elementary and middle schools, 191 of them, because of moderate to severe concern over test results in 2009.

(on camera) When the answer sheets like these were scored, the computer scanners could tell when the bubbles were erased and the answers changed.

(voice-over) Kathleen Mathers heads the state audit.

KATHLEEN MATHERS, GEORGIA GOVERNMENT'S OFFICE OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: It's not just someone had changed a bunch of answers. It was that when they changed answers, they got the answer right as a result of that change.

LEMON: Classes with an unusually high number of these changes were flagged.

MATHERS: It sort of like having a blizzard in Ft. Lauderdale in the middle of July. You know, in theory it could happen. It's just so incredibly unlikely that you really need a substantial explanation.

LEMON: Usually when we talk about cheating, the focus is on kids. In Georgia, the finger is being pointed at teachers and administrators. CNN obtained affidavits in the case of two administrators at an elementary school in Dekalb County accused of tampering with tests in 2008.

Former principal James Berry (ph) admitted they went into an office and began to erase answer sheets and change answers. Dorethea (ph) Alexander, the assistant principal, says she read the answers to Berry (ph). "He needed for 26 students to pass for us to make AYP." AYP is adequate yearly progress, an improvement standard set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools that repeatedly fail to meet AYP face sanctions.

Berry (ph) was charged with public records fraud, paid a fine and is on probation. Alexander was transferred and completed community service.

MATHERS: We have done some work with our monitors.

LEMON: Today Mathers is working with the state school board to keep it from happening again.

MATHERS: As a former teacher, I would say we're better than that.

LEMON: Georgia students are now taking the 2010 CRCT test under new guidelines. And watching over the whole process? State test monitors aimed at making sure these tests can be trusted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Big topic. Everything to do with how students succeed at public education. Something we've really, really been focusing on, this show and on CNN. Don Lemon is hosting a special on CNN this weekend called "Fixing America's Schools." I think it's a must-watch for all of us, whether or not you have children in the public school system.

It's a town-hall meeting with parents, students and teachers from across the United States, plus the secretary of education, Arne Duncan. Catch it tomorrow at 7 p.m. Eastern or Sunday, at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories that we're following, starting with a fraud claim in the aftermath of the housing collapse. As we've been reporting, the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs is accused of selling mortgage-backed securities that were essentially set up to lose money. Allegedly, the deals were put together, in part, by a hedge-fund tycoon who was betting against the mortgage investments. The feds say investigators who bought them lost a billion dollars. Goldman Sachs says the charge is unfounded.

West Virginia's coal mines are standing down today to focus on safety. It's been 11 days since 29 West Virginia miners were killed in a blast at the Upper Big Branch Mine owned by Massey Energy. Since then, federal inspectors have reportedly turned up more than 60 serious safety violations at more than 30 Massey-owned mines in West Virginia and Kentucky.

And Chinese media now report more than 1,100 deaths in this week's earthquake in the Himalayan foothills. Premier Wen Jiabao visited the region today, telling victims -- this is a quote -- "Your suffering is our suffering." More than 400 people are still unaccounted for. Almost 12,000 others are hurt.

All right. Volcanic ash. We've been talking about this volcanic ash spreading across Europe, turning much of the continent into a no- fly zone. Chad Myers has been watching this since the beginning. He's going to give us the forecast for that volcanic ash, how it's going to affect your travel. And again, he's going to answer your questions about why this ash is such a severe flight hazard, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Most of us, many of us need to lose a few pounds or, in some cases, a bit more. There's a guy from England who can help. He's celebrity chef and best-selling author Jamie Oliver, a man on a mission to inspire and teach us and our kids how to live better, how to eat longer -- I think it's how to eat better and live longer. He chopped in to chat with our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE OLIVER, CELEBRITY CHEF: This is one of America's dark moments in health, especially with children. You know, they say that this is the first generation of kids expected to live a shorter lifespan than their own parents. And obesity going through the roof. And all the other kind of diet-related illnesses.

And yet, you know, in schools, we really need them to have nourishing food, cooked on-site, local if it's all possible, and -- and also be taught to cook. Ten recipes to save their life.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: People talk about childhood obesity a lot. You know, President Clinton has looked into this, obviously. A lot of organizations have tried to address this.

I got to tell you, even here at CNN, we really have taken this on as well. It seems tough. It seems tough. It seems tough, because people don't want to listen. They all know a lot of the stuff that you're saying. How -- first of all, why do you think you're going to get through and how do you do it?

OLIVER: I think being a foreigner in this country, having a totally clear, unbiased opinion of anything, you know, you can kind of walk into a situation and sort of evaluate it. And what I'm getting from people is they do want help. They just want quick, easy tools, and they want to be shown very clearly how to do it.

GUPTA: Well, that's a perfect segue. So you're -- you called yourself an outsider, coming to the United States, looking in. Again, if people want to do the right thing, want to do right by their own bodies, their children's bodies, who is wearing the black hat in all this? Is it the food industry, fast food? I mean, everyone says, look, everyone is to blame. But...

OLIVER: I've changed my views. Five years ago I would have given you a long old list of people that I'd love to slap about, right, and disappear off the face of the earth. And that would be a very immature sort of way to deal with the black-hat guys. These brands, these logos, I loved.

You know, and I say my grown-up attitude has gone from being much more activist to, well, you can activist and burn things down all your like. They ain't going nowhere. So really I believe that everyone is part of the solution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: All right. We're going to hear a lot more from Jamie Oliver and learn some easy, inexpensive ways to put healthy food on your table. "SANJAY GUPTA M.D.," Saturday and Sunday morning at 7:30 Eastern.

Let's head over to Chad and find out what's going on. Really, all of the stuff you're covering today. The big, big story here is this -- this volcanic ash that is coming out of Iceland.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Right. The big news in the U.S., it's raining in Texas, next.

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: Because it really -- our weather is not a story at all compared to this.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: What's that country right there? Poland.

VELSHI: Poland.

MYERS: Guess what? The president is going to try to get there. Any planes in the air underneath that? The planes are yellow.

VELSHI: Right. MYERS: And they are flying.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: The little blue markers are airports that are transponding and there are no airplanes anywhere near those airports.

VELSHI: So you can probably -- you can just judge from this where the cloud is. The cloud is over here. There is open airspace down here in southern Europe.

MYERS: Correct. All the way through here. The only fly in that ointment, Ali, is that right through here there are no blue transponders here.

VELSHI: What does that mean?

MYERS: We don't know if there are airplanes right here or not. This is not an official thing --

VELSHI: Right. OK. You're just reading transponding airports.

MYERS: I can't see this. This is called flightradar24.com. It's a public site. You can go and take a look at it if you want. And there are --

VELSHI: What we do know is that in seven countries, airspace is completely shut down. In about eight of them, partially shut down.

MYERS: All the way over here. Now, the cloud is actually going toward Denmark, Latvia and into Russia at this point. So, this airspace may clear up later today. We will see. This is the problem. We showed it to you yesterday --

VELSHI: Highly magnified particle of volcanic ash.

MYERS: This is your brain on drugs.

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: This is what a particle of ash looks like in the air. It melts. Even if you get a little bit of melting, even if you fly through a little bit, that ice and that glass that's on the back of the plane and in the jet is going to stay there a very long time. So you can't fly through any of it, ever.

VELSHI: That's what we're worried about because as it dissipates, as you pointed out, when you see it right from the volcano, it's dark, it's black. You can see it when it gets hundreds of miles over, it starts to look like a cloud and you can't see it as well.

MYERS: I like your cancellation idea because I don't want to be the person on the first flight.

VELSHI: Testing whether or not our plane is going to make it through that.

MYERS: There you go.

VELSHI: All right. We'll continue on this with Chad. We'll get an update in the next hour.

Listen. Can you imagine being told that you can't visit your loved one in hospital? They want you the visit. You want to visit with them. They're in serious health, and you can't go. That is about to change because of a big new development. We're going to tell you about it on the other side. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: President Obama has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a rule to prevent hospitals from denying visitation privileges to gay and lesbian partners. In a memo the president says, gay and lesbian Americans are often, quote, "barred from bedsides of partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives, unable to be there for the person they love and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated." End quote.

This hits especially home for Janice Langbend. She was forced to sit in a waiting room while her partner of 17 years, Lisa Pond, died of an aneurysm. She spoke with Anderson Cooper. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tell us a little bit about what happened to you. You and your kids were with your partner in Florida. You were there for a cruise, for a trip. Lisa collapsed. And -- and she was taken to the hospital. I mean, how did they say that you weren't allowed to see her?

JANICE LANGBEHN, DENIED VISITATION RIGHTS: My partner collapsed. And when she got to the hospital, which was about 3:00, 3:30, Florida time, a social worker, Garnett Frederick, came out and told me -- "You are in an anti-gay city and state and won't get to see your partner or know of her condition," and then turned to walk away.

And I said: "But wait a minute. I have a power of attorney." So, he came back and gave me his fax number. And within 20 minutes of him telling me that, they had our legal document. But I continued to wait.

COOPER: So, wait a minute. You had the legal documents needed. You had advanced directives; you had a power of attorney?

LANGBEHN: I did, yes.

COOPER: And yet they still wouldn't let you see her?

(CROSSTALK)

LANGBEHN: Because I have -- yes, because I have multiple sclerosis. So, we were planning for anything like this. And it didn't matter to this hospital.

COOPER: They finally did let you see her briefly, but only when they were reading her, her last rites; is that right?

LANGBEHN: Yes. A chaplain came to me. And I said, I need a priest immediately.

And I didn't want the children to see her for the first time that way, because I didn't know what I would see. And, so, just I went back to do the last rites. And she must have had some kind of consciousness, because she was actually restrained to the bed at that point, though not verbal or conscious. And then they, after the five- minute ceremony, brought me back out. And I continued to wait another -- with the kids, another five hours. And it wasn't until her sister showed up from Jacksonville that then I was allowed in to have access to my partner of 17 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: We just learned that the hospital involved in this case, Miami's Jackson Memorial, has expanded its visitation policy now to include same-sex partners. Jackson Memorial is the third-largest hospital in the country.

This hospital rights rule proposed by President Obama doesn't just impact gays and lesbians. It also has an impact on people who don't have blood relatives. Imagine a widow or widower who wants a friend by their side or a member of religious orders like nuns and monks who don't marry. The president also wants hospital rights for those groups protected.

I have a strong opinion about this. I'll bring it to you in my "XYZ" at the end of my show. This has been a hot topic on my Facebook page today. Let me read you the comments.

Anthony writes, "I have -- my feeling on homosexuality but despite how one may feel, we cannot, should not deny folks these kinds of rights and responsibilities."

Christine writes on my Facebook page, "I often wonder what century we live in. Reading this makes me think we are no better than cavemen. How or why would any hospital reject a partner or loved one's visitation rights based on a patient's sexual preference?"

Now, if you're a pilot -- another story -- if you're a pilot taking antidepressants, there was a time when you couldn't fly. Times are changing on that. I'll have that story for you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Bring you up to speed on the top stories we're following here at CNN.

Housing construction hit its highest level in 16 months in March. The Commerce Department says overall jumped 1.6 percent, all because of a big surge in multi-family homes. New construction on single- family homes slipped a bit, but permits were up, signaling that more building expected in the months ahead.

As we've been reporting, the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs is accused of selling mortgage-backed securities that essentially were set up to lose money. Allegedly, the deals were put together in part by a hedge fund that was betting against them. The feds say investors who bought them lost a billion dollars. Goldman says the charge is unfounded.

And he's a former charter jet pilot who dubbed himself Prozac pilot to raise awareness of depression. Now he says he has new hope of returning to the cockpit. That's because the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration is relaxing tough rules on the use of antidepressants. Pilots with mild to moderate depression will be allowed to fly while taking the antidepressants if they can show they've been satisfactorily treated for at least 12 months.

Graduation time. Time for students to celebrate, but at one university, the graduation speaker is upsetting the party for some people. I'll tell you about it on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Okay. Listen, I want to talk to you about Jamie Dimon. He is the CEO of JP Morgan Chase. You may have heard the name, you may have seen him on TV. He's been a very prominent figure over the last few years. He is supposed to be the speaker at the graduation ceremony at Syracuse University on May 16th. Almost a month from now. But a petition has been circulating around campus to get him uninvited as the speaker.

So, I want to talk to two people who can help me understand this a little bit better. Adrienne Garcia is the organizer of the - co- organizer of the student petition at Syracuse. Duff McDonald is the author of "Last Man Standing." He's very well-known as an author of things that go on on Wall Street. He's written a book about Jamie Dimon, "Last Man Standing." So, I thought these two might be ideal people for us to have this conversation with.

Adrian, thank you for being with us. First of all, tell us, what's your problem with Jamie Dimon?

ADRIENNE GARCIA, ORGANIZER OF STUDENT PROTEST AGAINST DIMON: Thank you for having me. Namely, our problem is that Jamie Dimon represents the banking industry, which we feel has really failed America in the last few years, given the economic crisis. We feel it's a really insensitive time to be celebrating him when it's our celebration about our hard work that our families and ourselves have put in during this time.

VELSHI: Duff, Adrian says Jamie Dimon represents the banking industry. One can't really take issue with that. He does represent the banking industry.

You have said in your writings that you think he might be a bit of a hero of banking industry. Tell me for our viewers who have no intimate knowledge or connection with Jamie Dimon what we should think he represents.

DUFF MCDONALD, AUTHOR, "LAST MAN STANDING": Well, I think he represents what's good about the banking industry. And a guy who represents doing business the right way. So -- I believe his talk was supposed to be about leadership and the leader of a $2 trillion bank certainly has -- should have something interesting to say about leadership.

I agree with her that there's a question about, you know, who and what let people down over the last few years. But as Jamie has pointed out on a number of occasions, and I think I agree with him, painting an entire industry and everybody in it with the same brush is sort of a gross generalization. It doesn't do people a lot of good.

VELSHI: Adrienne, what's your response to that? You have obviously heard that criticism before. Why not have him come and tell us what he's learned about the industry? Why not see him as a leader in the industry in a positive light as opposed to a negative light?

GARCIA: Well, there's one thing to say about an industry that, as a whole, has not been very good, and being the leader of that might not necessarily be the top place to be. He is right now working toward lobbying against Congress to stop some of the reforms on the financial reform bill. So, he has been working against the American people itself to stop customer protections because it will hurt his company, and he's set up to lose about $500 million a year if these reforms go through.

VELSHI: All right. Stay right there. We've got a response from Jamie Dimon that I want to share with our viewers on the other side of this break. Then I want to ask you what you've got to say about that. And by the way, if you are interested in talking to the CEO of Goldman Sachs at your graduation ceremony, he might be looking for some good press.

Stay right there. Adrienne Garcia is the co-organizer of the student petition. Duff McDonald, author of a book on Jamie Dimond. We'll be back in a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Should Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, be the graduation speaker on May 16th at Syracuse University? There are a number of students who say no. He's been invited. He's booked. And a lot of people say no.

We reached out to JP Morgan Chase, and here's what they had to say. That Jamie Dimon applauds students for standing up for what they believe in and that he respects their right to disagree. He was also a little surprised by the reaction since a student committee had recommended him as the commencement speaker.

I'm joined again by Adrienne Garcia. She's a co-organizer of the student petition. Duff McDonald, well-known reporter and author on Wall Street and has written the definitive book on Jamie Dimon. Adrienne, first of all, you're a university. These discussions come out -- come on regularly about people who have been invited to be graduation or commencement speakers, and a lot of the times, the defense is that you are a university. You're supposed to be there to have controversial ideas and to be able to critique them and discuss them on campus. Why not allow that idea to prevail here?

GARCIA: Well, we definitely feel that we should have a dialogue about the banking industry, the financial crisis. But we don't feel like our commencement is the right place to do it. And earlier, you even said something about good press during commencement, and we do feel like this is what it's about. Jamie Dimon's going to use our commencement speech to make himself look good. Repair the image of the financial industry as a whole.

But it's really about our commencement. And Mr. Dimon is a little bit misinformed. The senior graduating class does not vote for the speaker. It is selected behind closed doors by -- it is a student committee, but they discuss it, and the chancellor gets the final say.

VELSHI: Duff, I want to, you know -- poor you, I set you up to be the defender of evil Wall Street here, but I know your writings over the years. You have been as critical of Wall Street as you have been complimentary. Why, for people who don't know, specifically is Jamie Dimon different from, let's say, inviting the CEO of AIG, who is -- the CEO at the time of the collapse, or the CEO of Goldman Sachs? Why do you think Jamie Dimon would be a good opportunity for these students to hear from?

MCDONALD: Well, I obviously think there's a lot of interesting stuff from Jamie's career, enough to have written a book on it. So, it's, like, first of all, he's not accused of anything other than running a bank, and it's interesting that we get to a -- that we seem to have gotten to a point where people think that in itself is an indictable offense.

He's a study in -- in leadership through crisis in my opinion, so for students thinking about their futures, someone who has had such a remarkable career with the number of twists and turns and who has emerged as sort of a paragon of leadership in his field, would seem to me to be an interesting guy to hear from.

You know, I do applaud students for their protests and standing up for what they believe in, because, you know, that's what students are supposed to do. But at the same time, he's a really interesting guy, who has a reputation for speaking with a kind of candor that you don't find out of a lot of CEOs, and it's refreshing. So, you know, if I were there, I'd be going. I'd get my ticket.

VELSHI: Adrienne Garcia, what do you think's going to happen here? Two things can happen -- well, three things can happen. One, it can go on as planned. Two is, the chancellor could decide to uninvite Jamie Dimon as I think you'd like to have happen. And three is, Jamie Dimon sit there and say, I do not want to come and attract that attention. I'm not going to come. What is going to happen, and what will you do if the event goes on as planned? Will you protest it?

GARCIA: Well, we hope it's the latter of the two options that will happen, either chancellor or Jamie Dimon will say no. But if he does decide to speak, we'll either hold an alternate ceremony where we get to celebrate our achievements and not to have to listen to somebody we owe money to, or we will do a silent and peaceful protest during the commencement.

VELSHI: Adrienne Garcia, thank you for being with us to talk with us about this. And Duff McDonald, as well, thank you. He's the author of "Last Man Standing" about Jamie Dimon. We'll obviously follow this with great interest.

I should tell you that you will remember some of the more controversial invitations for commencements or graduations. Most recently in 2009, President Barack Obama was invited to speak at Notre Dame. Protesters at this traditionally Catholic university objected to the president's views on abortion. In 2008, Jerry Springer was invited to the graduation at Northwestern University. He's a Northwestern grad. Clearly, some people didn't like that.

In 2006, Salmon Rushdie (ph) was invited to speak at Florida's NOVA Southeastern University. Muslim students spoke out against that because of Rushdie's novel that inflamed some Muslims, the satanic verses. In 1999, Mumia Abu-Jamal, you'll remember him, was invited to give a speech at Evergreen State University. He's a death-row inmate. Many, many people think he was wrongly accused of shooting a police officer. He did, in fact, deliver that speech on tape, which was taped at his jail cell.

And in 2008, Clarence Thomas speaking at the University of Georgia. Students and faculty -- this is Justice Clarence Thomas -- students and faculty objected to his -- to the sexual harassment scandal that came out when he was being confirmed as a judge.

All right. We'll continue to follow that story.

Where in the world can you go to play a little Australia football? Get in some volleyball with Slovakians, then stop by the French bakery and pick up some pastries? That answer, well, at an air base in Afghanistan. It's our "Backstory." We'll bring it to you right after this.

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VELSHI: Very special treat today for our Friday "Backstory." We're bringing you stories behind the stories. Isha Sesay is with us, while Michael Holmes is in Afghanistan. He was here a couple weeks ago, telling us he was heading to Afghanistan ON reporting duty.

So, you're here, in part, some of his story. Welcome. Great to see you, by the way.

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL, "BACKSTORY": Thank you, Ali. Great to be on the show with you. Great work you're doing As you said, Michael is indeed embedded with U.S. troops in Kandahar province. One of his stops was Kandahar air base, where he got an unexpected lesson in multinational relations. Here's his "Backstory."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You probably see it on "Back Story" from time to time, correspondents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where we are now. Talk about how long it takes sometimes to get to places, the logistics can be difficult. There's a lot of waiting around and stuff like that.

Of course, we flew in Kabul. Then we had to wait to get a flight down here. That took 24 hours, and then we got here to Kandahar Air Force base, and to get to where we need to go inside the city, we've been waiting around for 24 hours.

But, of course, our team doesn't like to sit around and do nothing. One thing we noticed here at the base is -- and I didn't know this about this particular base -- is there's 17 different nationalities, here. So we thought, hey, we'll go out and do a story about all the different uniforms at Kandahar Air Force base before we head into the city tomorrow.

Here's the piece.

(voice-over): Kandahar air force base is the second-biggest base in Afghanistan, and quite possibly the most diverse in the world when it comes to who's working there.

Take a look around. The uniforms are worn by soldiers from the Czech Republic, Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Canada, and, of course, the United States. In all, 17 nations work here.

CORPORAL ADAM WALSTER, ROYAL AIR FORCE: It's nice. Good to chat over in the Brit, we've got the coffee shop and everything. Get to chat with them every now and then.

HOLMES: Germans have their own PX or retail store, open to everyone. So do the French. They have a patisry (ph) as well. And the Dutch as well as the Americans. (INAUDIBLE) inviting the uninitiated to a game of Aussie rules football, while on the volleyball court, the Slovakians play on the same side as the Americans.

(on camera): Doing rather well, actually. Interviewing Canadians and slovakians. We've seen people from Estonia and the British. The Dutch are very shy. They didn't want to talk to us, the ones we've met.

It's one of the things when you're doing stories like this and you need to get sound bites or what we call is SOTs. You want to get little sound bites from people. Sometimes you can go through ten people before someone will actually talk to you. So, we had a couple of Dutch people and a couple of English or British soldiers that didn't want to chat, so we're working on it. This is actually cool because you've got Slovakians playing with Americans on the volleyball court. That's a nice shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Let's doing a little working off the shoulder.

HOLMES: It's a slow, methodical operation. Heavy gun battles are expected to take place. The focus is on building trust with the local government and law enforcement, and convincing the citizens of Kandahar that they're better off without the Taliban, who still rule large areas around here, and who continue to carry out attacks inside of Afghanistan's second biggest city.

Michael Holmes, CNN, Kandahar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Yes. Actually, great stuff.

VELSHI: He makes it seem like it's all very relaxed. This is one thing about Holmes which is great. He makes it seem that way, but yesterday he was very close to a bomb that went off.

SESAY: Yes. No, absolutely.

There were two attacks actually in Afghanistan yesterday, and I know that he was interviewed on CNN, just really breaking down what the situation was. It was a suicide car bombing that claimed several lives. And he's there trying to bring us the story, showing us how he gets the story, but really, there's some really serious work to do.

VELSHI: Yes. Tough, tough job out there.

Isha, great to see you. Thanks so much for being with us.

If you want to see more from Michael and Isha and the Back/Story team, check out CNN.com/backstory.